I have a seemingly irrational dislike of the new 'Stars Of the Week' system at dds primary

[PoorOldEnid]

and I wonder why

Is it because of an intrinsic dislike of anything 'happy clappy' or holiday camp-ish

or ARE there any downsides to them

Teachers pick one or two children a week to be the STARS - the reason is put on a board in the reception area of teh school eg " Enids dd is a STAR because she is reliable and helpful to others"

[Soapbox]

The pre prep at my DC's school has this.

When DD was in reception, she was one of the children to get a merit award, very early in the year.

Assuming as you do, when you clearly have a genius as your PFB child, I bent down to get a good look at what the award was for, all sorts of possibilities of academic excellence running through my head

Imagine how proud I was to see that her award was for 'setting a good example to others by ALWAYS eating all of her lunch' PMSL!

Bubble... pricked... me... non...

[haggisaggis]

They used to do star of the week at my dc's school - ds hated it as some children seemed to get it several times (it involved a special certificate, sitting on a special cushion at circle time and having a soft toy sit on your desk for a week) and he only got it once.
He had no idea what it was awarded for - but I know the time he got it was because I'd found out a meaning of an obscure Scots word for him. So relaly I should have been Star that week!
they do still give out certificates at assembly for good work / behaviour / being kind etc and these seem more evenly distributed.

[aintnomountainhighenough]

Yes we had this at DDs old school. Each week someone would get star of the week and yes it was almost done in rotation. I told DD this fairly early on so she would simply say to me 'is it my turn this week'! Then in assembly everyone gets a star for doing something like holding a door open or saying 'hello'. You know all those things that are actually normal behaviour. I kid you not at the end of assembly virtually every child would be standing up! However I do think stars and the like are good but I prefer them to be individual i.e. the child has their own chart in their draw and the teacher gives them specific stars for doing things well etc. I think this makes it better for the child as it personal to them. To get over an problems I used to award my DD 'worker of the week' every week because she is my little star.

[MamaG]

oh they have a lottery thing at our school as well

I can't remember why they get tickets something about house points?

[Maria33]

I love your idea of normal behaviour anmhe. If my dd opened a door and said hello, I'd think that was normal. If my ds did it I'd rigid with shock. I'd be interrogating the teachers - how did you get him to do that? Do you think he'll do it again one day?

Interesting for me that with well-behaved 'normal' dd I hated stars and stickers but with ds I secretly like them.

[OrmIrian]

Oh. I 'contributed' to this thread under false pretences. Ours is star of the day

In yr5 DS#1 had a star of the week. I think that each child had a pop at it. They ended up with a little booklet with their photo on the front and every child and the teachers and TAs used one page to write something nice about them and maybe do a little doodle or a picture. Most of them were somewhat repetitive - X is really kind, X is really nice etc, and only his mates had anything genuine to say (X is a good friend. He has a really cool Plan B deck and is really good at ollies - that sort of thing).